Gila Valley Temple

Temples are a very important and sacred part of our faith. We refer to temples as the "House of the Lord". In temples we learn about the purpose of life and make covenants to serve Jesus Christ. Recently a temple has been built in Eastern Arizona near Safford. When the temple is finished they have an open house where people of any age and faith may go inside and look at the temple. After the open house, the temple is dedicated and only faithful members of the church are allowed to enter.

Today was the dedication of the temple. All church meetings were cancelled so that we could attend. We took Hanna and Kamary with us to the church where they broadcasted the dedication live. It was a great experience.

Last week we had the opportunity to go to the open house. It's about 3 hours drive from here. Hanna actually went with a group of youth from the church and then we went together as a family. It was kind of funny because we didn't plan it, but we saw her all throughout the day. We kept going to the same places the youth group went. We even met up at the same grocery store on the way home.

The Gila Valley Temple

Brynlie's friends on the journey.

Friday night, Brynlie got sick and started throwing up. We were worried because we were planning on going to the temple open house. Jason and a neighbor gave her a priesthood blessing. She stopped throwing up after that and was well enough that we were able to go. We felt very blessed. We had other experiences too that could have stopped us from going, but we were determined and have been greatly blessed.

Here we are just after walking through the temple.

Kamary really enjoyed it. She quietly came up to me and thanked me for bringing her to the temple. She had a special feeling walking through the temple. Her favorite room was the Baptistry. Alyssa liked the Sealing Room and Hanna's was the Celestial Room. Kohler loved the lighting (which was funny to me). They gave us brochures and he kept matching the room we saw with the one on the brochure. A tour guide was walking with us and took Kohler under her wing, showing him all of the different rooms. It was very sweet.

After the open house we had some refreshments on the lawn of the church.

Dad and Brynlie hanging out.

Lauren with the temple in the background.

After visiting the temple, we took the kids to Golden Corral. We thought of Grandma & Grandpa the whole time!

After lunch we headed over to the childhood home of Spencer W. Kimball. He was the prophet of our church when I was a kid. A family actually lives in the home, but were nice enough to give tours. We arrived there just as Hanna's youth group was leaving. The kids really enjoyed walking through the home. Kamary even listened to the stories they told us about President Kimball.

In the picture above we are standing next to President Kimball's desk. They told us that after he had throat surgery he couldn't sleep so he sat at this desk and wrote a book.

This is the front of the home.

They made a lot of modern improvements to the home, but left some of the woodwork and brickwork so that we could see what it was like. There was a secret toy room in the loft-- the kids really enjoyed that!

Anyway, it was a great day and a great experience for us to have a new temple here in Arizona.